Another very winnable game that was lost and I'm not sure why. I guess it baffles me that the Pistons down by 2 with 15 seconds to go have Sheed jack up a 3. Why not try something a little closer and hope to go to the foul line? Flip's substitution patterns also irritate me no end. He stays with his starters way too long and putting in Maxiell for 3 minutes in this game just won't get it done. Tayshaun plays more minutes than he should but on the other hand Agent 0 didn't beat us tonight but Jamison did. Was that a career night for Jamison?

Ok first thing to say is good 4th qtr, but we screwed up the 3rd qtr., which cost us the game..

A good come back to take the lead, but a touch foul by Sheed in the end, a bad set up play for Sheed to take a 3 when they weree only down by one and then a botched play in the last 5 seconds by Tay ends the Pistons streak at 3. Missing 7 ft's doesn't help either.

You can't play passive for a quarter and expect to win a game vs one of your chief competitors.. Give the wiz some respect and play them tougher at their crib....I bet they look at Jamison a little closer in the next game...35Pts

We can't win consistently when we give up more than 90 points in the regular season. Maybe the coach will get it. We do not have a western style offense to be able to win games consistently at 100 points.

We have to play defense to win. We go into a drought and the other team keeps scoring. Then, we are behind and we have to make a major effort to catch up and hope to get lucky.

We do not control the games with our offense like the Suns.

Way too many open looks in crunch time by the opposition. This is not Piston winning basketball.

Agree, the last second three was not the way to go. Let's get back to the Webber play book.

Ok first thing to say is good 4th qtr, but we screwed up the 3rd qtr., which cost us the game..

A good come back to take the lead, but a touch foul by Sheed in the end, a bad set up play for Sheed to take a 3 when they weree only down by one and then a botched play in the last 5 seconds by Tay ends the Pistons streak at 3. Missing 7 ft's doesn't help either.

You can't play passive for a quarter and expect to win a game vs one of your chief competitors.. Give the wiz some respect and play them tougher at their crib....I bet they look at Jamison a little closer in the next game...35Pts

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I agree. Sometimes have that one quarter when the team gets away from the game plan. For about 6 mins of the 3rd No sharing, no effort on the glass - one and done for the Pistons where Wash was getting all kinds of 2nd chances.

Continuation? I did not see a whole lot of difference between Arena's 2 continuation calls in the 4th and Rip's 2 which Rip did not get. Thats a possible 12 point swing.

Give Wash some credit. They hit the big shots and Coran Butler was 4-4 from the line in crunch time.

Note - Pistons out-boarded the Wiz 47-36. Rebounding was a concern here after the 3 wins. Kind of a hollow stat now but worth noting.

Don't feel like writing much. Bit under the weather, and man I am depressed from watching a loss. Well, its not the loss, its that 3 Sheed took with us down only 2 points. That is truly depressing.

I'll start writing and see what I can remember as I go.

Tay stayed aggressive much of the game, doing quite a bit of damage around the basket. I remember seeing a lot of hooks from him tonight, more often than not they went in.

Rip hit some shots early, including a couple of 3's. Seems he disappeared somewhat after that.

Webber was a huge factor in our scoring early, either from his own scoring, his passes, or just promptly passing out of a double team, lettint the team swing it to the open man. He started the scoring with a jumper, and thendrove baseline to put us up 4-0.

The one gripe I got is Flip went down to an 8 man rotation in the first half, when it seemed like the perfect night for 10 to counter all of Washington's energy, specifically on the inside game. Maxiell did get some burn in the 2nd half, which got us back into the game at that point by the way, but man, we could have used both JMAX and Dale Davis in large amounts both halves.

Delfino helped hold Butler to near zero points. Thats good defense considering Butler is a 20 point scorer. Delfino also hit a few shots. Complaint though, Flip Saunders used him way too little as a point guard, and Hunter way too much as one. In this game, Hunter was no match at all for Arenas, and he did nothing to get plays going on the offensive end. Not a good fit for this game.

I do like Dyess, but hey, Flip is way too easily seduced by a few made jumpers. Dyess hitting jumpers does not add to our post game. Playing Dale Davis, a guy who can bull his way around down inside, and JMAX is the way to go. Keep all three of these guys in the rotation, but no way try to overuse Dyess.

Billups did no scoring hardly until the 4th, when he lit it up with some 3's and free throws. Seems both him and Rip missed too many at the line tonight though. That hurt us.

Yes, Washington hit some shots down the stretch. But why was the game so close? Chris Webber is a starter, but no, he is not a 36 minute per game player. Remember the knee surgery Mr. Saunders? Back off on his minutes. Gee, how many times do you have to be reminded by Joe Dumars out back of the wood shed to develop the bench. Overplaying starters does not help that.